Board member Deborah Choi testifies before the U.S. Congress
On September 16, 2026, North Korea Liberation Movement board member Deborah Choi appeared as a witness before the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on East Asia and the Pacific, at a hearing titled “Lives, Not Leverage: The Long Arm of China and North Korea’s Repression.” She testified about growing up under the regime, the public execution she was made to watch as a child, her escape across the Tumen River in 2004, and the year and a half she was held by traffickers in China — and she asked Congress to keep human rights at the center of U.S. policy toward North Korea.
“I respectfully request that the U.S. Congress and the U.S. government continue to keep human rights at the center of North Korea policy. There are millions who cannot freely raise their own voices.”
Deborah Choi escaped North Korea in 2004 and arrived in the United States in 2006 with the first group of refugees admitted under the North Korean Human Rights Act — the very law whose reauthorization is this movement’s central campaign. Subcommittee Chairwoman Young Kim cited her testimony in calling for the Act to be renewed and its protections for North Korean refugees extended through 2030.